Types Of Perfectionism

What is perfectionism in psychology? Perfectionism is a personality trait generally understood as the tendency to reject any imperfection

The definition of perfectionism tends to be confused with the philosophical concept of perfectionism, considered in its meaning of moral value as the will to achieve the optimal quality of spiritual, mental, physical and material life. In this sense, the perfectionist person does not believe that a perfect life can be achieved, but rather that the perseverance of perfectionist practices can lead to the best life possible.

In psychology, however, perfectionism is often considered a symptom of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. In this sense, it can be more specifically attributed to those whose standards of behavior are unreasonable and far beyond their means and who strive incessantly and obsessively to achieve impossible goals. Likewise, today theories have been advanced that see the origin of pathological perfectionism as a set of determining factors of the psychological disorder.

On the other hand, there is no single type of perfectionism, since it can manifest differently in each person and environment. Below we will see what the types of perfectionism are and how to distinguish them:

Perfectionism can be self-oriented (or self-oriented) when the person self-imposes overly strict standards associated with the inability to accept their own mistakes. In the case of particularly negative events, this attitude can also lead to depression problems.

The characteristics that this type of perfectionists have are:

• Personal standards that are impossible to achieve, the result of self-imposition.
• Tendency to excessive severity towards oneself.
• Strong feeling of frustration, which can lead to depression.

Other-oriented perfectionism occurs when the person imposes the demand for total adaptation of others to their own standards of behavior. Individuals with this type of perfectionism frequently experience intense anger, aggression, and subsequent relational difficulties:

• Expect complete adaptation by others to your own standards of perfectionism.
• Inability to delegate tasks to other people.
• Difficulty controlling one’s own aggressiveness towards others and problems relating.

We speak of socially imposed perfectionism when the perfectionist person mistakenly considers that others may have exaggerated expectations of them. Additionally, individuals with this type of perfectionism believe that meeting these expectations is the only way to gain their approval.

This attitude can lead to extreme irritability, depression, and social phobia due to fear of being judged negatively for others. Other consequences of socially imposed perfectionism are:

• Perception of externally imposed performance standards.
• Having the feeling that others have exaggerated expectations and that it is necessary to meet them to obtain approval.
• Extreme irritability towards those who are demanding.
• Tendency towards depression and social phobia due to the impossibility of meeting expectations.

Pathological perfectionism can be distinguished from functional perfectionism by the following characteristics:

• Expectations and standards of behavior that are too high and unrealistic.
• Investment of a large amount of energy to achieve them.
• Expectations so unreasonable that they often jeopardize individual performance.
• Interpretation of error as an index of failure.
• Harsh self-evaluations based on all-or-nothing thinking.
• Distrust in one’s own abilities.
• Giving too much importance to the expectations of others.
• Fear of judgment.

Clearly, the more rigid and difficult to question a person’s beliefs are, the more likely they are to cause problems. Pathological perfectionism, in many cases, can be the basis of psychological disorders, such as social or generalized anxiety, depressive disorders, experiences of anger and aggression, sleep disorders, relationship difficulties, obsessions, compulsions and dysfunctional eating behaviors, among others.

Likewise, this type of perfectionism can be considered a personality trait that can play a major role in detecting personality disorders. In particular, in obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, perfectionistic traits related to the fear of making mistakes and being judged negatively stand out. However, patients with other personality disorders, such as narcissistic disorder, may also present very high levels of perfectionism.

During growth, each person develops a “part” inside that contains moral and behavioral standards, rules about oneself, about others, and convictions about how one should or should not show oneself. In psychology, this part is known as the “internalized adult”, formed from the example of parents and other reference figures, such as school teachers, sports coaches, etc.

Throughout life, the internalized adult helps guide our behaviors and makes us feel guilty or inadequate when we do not follow these rules. If one or more of our reference figures acted on the basis of high, harsh, or rigid standards, it is possible that our internalized adult contains those same standards. In this case, perfectionism would simply be a repetition of rules learned in the family environment and could be summarized as follows: “I have to be perfect because these were my parents’ rules.”

Perfectionism doesn’t always come from learning high standards. Sometimes it is a reaction to perceived inadequacy and, therefore, it is a way to remedy it. There are many reasons why the sense of inadequacy is learned, such as having received a critical education or that one or more of the reference figures have exercised excessive care over us, preventing the development of skills and autonomy.

The perception of inadequacy, in some cases, may also depend on systematic hypercritical treatment by a school-age teacher. Whatever the reason we have developed the belief that we are inadequate, we are likely to try to remedy it. One of the typical strategies, although dysfunctional, is to develop perfectionism.

This type of perfectionism has to do with emotional deprivation by one or more reference figures. We understand ’emotional deprivation’ as a lack of attention (affection and companionship), empathy (listening, understanding and intimacy) or protection (guidance, limits and authoritative advice).

Emotional deprivation generates feeling of not being loved and protected, feelings that, as in the case of inadequacy, can try to be remedied with perfectionism. In this sense, being a perfectionist could be an attempt to recover the love of someone who has not given it to us (“If I am perfect, I will be loved”) or to eliminate that need (“If I am perfect I will no longer need anyone”).

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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